The following projects are currently under development by The Melissa Institute. Your help is needed to bring these projects to fruition. The Melissa Institute Educators’ Website The Melissa Institute Educators’ Website http://www.teachsafeschools.org is a project in which resource materials are made available electronically to principals, teachers and counselors  This interactive site went online in February 2005, offering information to deal with violence and other antisocial behaviors that occur in the school setting. The Robert and Renee Belfer Foundation has funded Phase One of this project. Additional funding is necessary to complete and sustain this worthwhile initiative. The Melissa Institute Literacy Initiative The Institute’s Literacy Initiative evolved out of research that demonstrates the clear linkage that exists between literacy and violence prevention. Students who do not learn to read by third grade are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior. This is a major contributing factor to violent behavior throughout their lives. The number of incarcerated adults who are illiterate constitutes a majority of the prison population in our country. The Melissa Institute has taken a position that supporting programs with a demonstrated success in promoting literacy in children is an important part of its mission. Dale Willows, Ph.D., an internationally renowned expert in the teaching of reading and a member of the National Reading Panel, has been working with at-risk, bilingual children in grades K-3 at Hialeah Elementary School, for the past two years.   Teachers at Hialeah Elementary are being provided with in-depth training that far exceeds anything they have experienced in their professional careers.  Funding for this program is being provided to the Institute by Larkin Community Hospital. Beginning in August, 2005, this program was expanded to include Martin Luther King Primary School.